Patient Care Report Access, Security & Disclosure

Section 2 - EMERGENCY OPERATIONS

PURPOSE:

To outline levels of access to Protected Health Information (PHI) for various staff members of Maitland Fire Rescue and to provide a policy and procedure on limiting access, disclosure, and use of PHI. To provide policies outlining patient rights and Maitland Fire Rescue’s responsibilities in fulfilling patient requests. Security of PHI is everyone’s responsibility.

GENERAL STATEMENTS:

Maitland Fire Rescue retains strict requirements on the security, access, disclosure and use of PHI. Access, disclosure and use of PHI will be based on the role of the individual staff member in the organization, and should be only to the extent that the person needs access to PHI to complete necessary job functions.

When PHI is accessed, disclosed and used, the individuals involved will make every effort, except in patient care situations, to only access, disclose and use PHI to the extent that only the minimum necessary information is used to accomplish the intended purpose.

Patients may exercise their rights to access, amend, restrict, and request an accounting, as well as lodge a complaint with either Maitland Fire Rescue or the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

PROCEDURE:

Role Based Access

• Access to PHI will be limited to those who need access to PHI to carry out their duties. The following describes the specific categories or types of PHI to which such persons need access is defined and the conditions, as appropriate, that would apply to such access.

Job Title

• Access to PHI is limited to the above-identified persons only, and to the identified PHI only, based on the Company’s reasonable determination of the persons or classes of persons who require PHI, and the nature of the health information they require, consistent with their job responsibilities.
• Access to a patient’s entire file will not be allowed except when expressly permitted by company policy or approved by the Privacy Officer.